Brace yourselves for a seasonal fall

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By tradition, September is a wretched month for stocks, with the market more
likely to fall than rise on any given day. Although the market has risen in
five of the past seven Septembers, the gnawing sense that it is a bad month
for investors has been reinforced in recent years, with the collapse of
Northern Rock in 2007 and, a year later, of Lehmans.

The ingredients are in place for a tricky September this year: tensions and
possible military action in the Middle East; signs that Greece — and perhaps
Portugal — will soon need another EU/IMF bailout; continued tight credit

It is understandable that the construction of an air-polluting,
noise-blighting £22 billion third runway to turn Heathrow into the world’s
pre-eminent superhub caught the eye, but the Davies report into airport
expansion also made another radical suggestion: that — third runway or not —
Heathrow should start acting like the UK hub that it pretends to be